Closing arguments are underway in the national security trial of pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai (黎智英), with lead prosecutor Anthony Chau (周天行) yesterday painting Lai as the “mastermind” behind a foreign conspiracy plot against the city’s leaders.
Lai, the 77-year-old founder of the Apple Daily newspaper, was first arrested in August 2020 and has been held in solitary confinement since December 2020. He faces a life sentence on charges of colluding with foreign forces and publishing seditious material.
Much of the focus of the trial has been on whether Lai encouraged the U.S. to sanction Hong Kong. Lai, who has pleaded not guilty to all charges, has maintained he could not have had serious influence on U.S. policy.
Health concerns briefly halted proceedings last week when Lai’s lawyer, Robert Pang (彭耀鴻), said the media mogul had experienced heart palpitations. On Monday, lead prosecutor Chau told the court that Lai had been fitted with a heart monitor and given medication.
The trial has drawn significant international attention, with Western governments, including the U.S., UK and Australia, condemning it as politically motivated and calling for Lai’s immediate release.
Supporters fear that Lai’s deteriorating health and prolonged detention could lead to his death in prison.
Trump Pledges to ‘Save’ Jimmy Lai
U.S. President Donald Trump has promised again to help “save” Jimmy Lai.
“I’m going to do everything I can to save him. I’m going to do everything,” Trump told Fox News Radio. “His name has already entered the circle of things that we’re talking about, and we’ll see what we can do.”
Shortly before his election victory last year, Trump told American radio host Hugh Hewitt he would “100 percent” get Jimmy Lai out of the city.
CY Leung Harasses Falun Gong Practitioners
Former Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying (梁振英), also known as CY Leung, was caught on camera harassing Falun Gong practitioners in Finland.
Leung, who was with his wife and two other people, took pictures of a group of Falun Gong practitioners at a park in Helsinki on August 13.
“Once we have your names, we can immediately look you up once we are back, one by one,” Leung said in a video published by Falun Gong media New Tang Dynasty Television.
Leung, who was chief executive from 2012 to 2017, is now vice chairman of China’s top political advisory body, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.
His son is married to a Finish national.
Crackdown on ‘Soft Resistance’
A report in The New York Times details how Hong Kong authorities are fixated on “soft resistance,” or subtle expressions of discontent, reflecting a political climate transformed after the suppression of the 2019 pro-democracy protests and Beijing’s 2020 national security law.
The phrase was coined by Beijing’s representative to Hong Kong in 2021. City officials and propaganda have recently warned of hidden threats in book fairs, music lyrics and environmental activism.
During his weekly press conference in June, Chief Executive John Lee (李家超) said “soft resistance is real and lurks in various areas and sectors.”
In one example cited by The Times, teachers were warned against participating in U.S. Independence Day activities organized by the U.S. consulate over concerns about “soft resistance.” In another, a group dedicated to protecting Victoria Harbour shut down after an official said criticism of undoing environmental safeguards could be a form of “soft resistance.”
“Hong Kong is a diverse and open society … This makes Hong Kong vulnerable to soft resistance and ‘cognitive warfare,’” Chinese academic Huang Dahui (黃大慧) told a panel for this year’s National Security Education Day.
Activists Granted Asylum
The Hong Kong government expressed “strong disapproval” after two pro-democracy activists with bounties of 1 million Hong Kong dollars ($128,000) on their heads received asylum.
Pro-independence activist Tony Chung (鍾翰林) and former lawmaker Ted Hui (許智峯) said in social media posts over the weekend that they had been granted asylum by the British and Australian governments, respectively.
Chung, founder of the now-disbanded pro-independence group Studentlocalism, fled Hong Kong two years ago following a prison sentence under the city’s national security law.
Hui, an ex-opposition lawmaker, is known for throwing a rotten plant on the floor of the Legislative Council to disrupt debate over a bill to criminalize abuse of China’s national anthem.
The two are among dozens of pro-democracy activists for whom Hong Kong is offering payments of 200,000 to one million Hong Kong dollars in exchange for help with their arrest.
“Any country that harbors Hong Kong criminals in any form shows contempt for the rule of law, grossly disrespects Hong Kong’s legal systems and barbarically interferes in the affairs of Hong Kong,” the Hong Kong government said in a statement released on Sunday.
“Turning a blind eye to the offences committed by the criminals and disregarding the potential security threats posed to the local community and residents, they shall eventually bear the consequences of what they have done.”
U.K. to Allow Extraditions on a ‘Case by Case’ Basis
Plans by the British government to remove Hong Kong from a list of countries that have formal extradition treaties with the U.K. will open up the possibility of extradition on a “case by case ad hoc basis.”
The U.K. had an extradition arrangement with Hong Kong, but London suspended extradition cooperation in 2020 after Beijing imposed national security legislation on the city.
The Labour government now wants to change Hong Kong’s designation under the Extradition Act 2003 from a country with which the U.K. has a formal extradition arrangement to one with which it does not.
Writing in Hong Kong exile Green Bean Media, law professor Johannes Chan explains that the U.K. can “enter into a ‘special extradition arrangement’ with a country or territory without any existing formal extradition treaty or arrangement.”
U.K.-based activist Chloe Cheung (張晞晴), who has an active arrest warrant for collusion and secession, said that the proposed change is causing “waves of anxiety among Hongkongers who have settled in this country.”
Security Minister Dan Jarvis said in a July 30 letter to the chair of the U.K. Parliament Joint Committee on Human Rights that the government would never allow Hongkongers to be extradited for “politically motivated purposes.”
Hong Kong 47 Marriage Announcement
Two pro-democracy activists who were recently released from prison announced their marriage.
Frankie Fung (馮達浚) and Tiffany Yuen (袁嘉蔚) were among 47 politicians and activists arrested and charged for participating in unsanctioned primary elections in 2021.
“Previously [I] only had my wife’s number in prison, today [I] finally have her phone number,” Fung wrote in Chinese on Instagram.
Fung was released last month, and Yuen was freed on Tuesday, the Hong Kong Free Press reports.
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